On this segment of Mississippi Outdoors TV, we took a close look at oyster production on the Gulf Coast before devastating flooding in 2019. Producer: Rusty Bush Videographer: Rusty Bush, Scooter Whatley Editor: David Selman
Wow. I been eating oysters for 40 years had no idea how commercial beds are created and managed. Thank god for smart people for helping the hungry ones 😂
Very interesting. Re-laying the opened shells makes good sense. The maturation cycle from super/egg to re-planting was vey interesting . The young lad running this group explained this process very well. Well done
I remember buying a sack of oysters directly from the oyster fisherman as he was coming in from a day of harvesting, at different places along the road from Mobile to Dauphin Island, before the big storm that took out the bridge. I NEVER realized that this much work and effort went into it - I thought it was pretty much all about a weathered looking guy with huge arms and shoulders that spent A LOT of time out on the water with the oyster tongs.
They used to be 30 cents shucked . Now they are a $ apiece not even shucked. Same with Crawfish they used to be a 1.50 at most places now they want $7.00 a lb . most Cajun can eat 5 lbs and still be hungry.
When I lived on the Texas coast I knew lots of guys that worked on shrimp and oyster boats. During times when that work was slow they'd come work for me in construction. I was always getting great deals on fresh shrimp and oysters whenever their boats would come in. I also knew a few guys who owned their own boats, but they were having a hard time because of the many regulations and competition from foreign importers! It seems our politicians were more interested in keeping the foreign importers happy, than they were their own constituents!
In the northwest beast time is winter as they are not spawning and everything is firmer and tastes better.Also we leave them in a bucket of water( salt) from area where they were taken. Pour corn meal in the water too. Leave all the oyster or clams over nite . They will suck in the corn meal and spit out the sand in them and makes them less crunchy and better tasteing.. ha ha. Broiled or fried the best!
Tastes as good as an estuary is derived from the Latin words aestus (“the tide”) and aestuo (“boil”), indicating the effect generated when tidal flow and river flow meet. Sweet smell we never smelled in Long Island Sound on the Connecticut side.
I love the video off the dredger. Those two fellas can move. Bet they can keep that pace for many hours on very little sleep. And in hot and humid into the bargain I imagine. have always admired people that can grind hard in hot weather. Do some more about Gulf dredging. How many boats? Where do they deliver? What are the best ports to work out of? How many crew? Do they have NMFS aboard? What is the regulatory environment like?
Need to string a electrified wire across the top of your dock pilings . Just hook it to a regular light switch and wait till the burds are sitting on the post and touching the wire . It wont take long before the local birds are avoiding the dock posts
Thank you for the video I enjoyed your show I love Austin's throw my favorite food to eat thank you so let me know how they grow and how your harvesting them
I've been growing oysters in trash cans and buckets for over a year now or pretty much fattening them up rather than calling it growing them do to them dieing in a few weeks to a month from not being able to filter out the excess algea cause i don't have an filtration system right now and are working on building something or hopefully in the future maybe buying some real-estate in an area where oysters grow naturally which i would use an aboveground pool pumping water in and out thus not letting the water get to thick . Watching this clip does let me know I'm headed on the right track though . Thanks for your inspiration .
The first idea though was to build a pond that was connected to a body of saltwater and at the entrance build a flood gate or filling entrance in with sand prior to draining pond prior to harvesting but the aboveground pool recirculated with saltwater was definitely the cheapest . Although if I find a good way to control algea I won't do the pond/pool thing . Maybe I'll retry using algeacide and I'll keep ya'll updated . Actually once I almost bought a large pool sand filter but didn't have the funds so bought a small pool pump/filter which didn't appear to do much .
@William Smith I use an air pump which does circulate the water but now I'm going to start partially shading them instead of having them in direct sunlight all day . I'll inform you in the future if that works or not . I kindly Thank you for your help though .
@William Smith It seems to me the size of the spat anchor roughly determines the size of oyster . Where I get my quarter sized spat for my farming endeavor is a bed of pebbles and the oysters don't get much bigger but when I go looking for oysters for me to eat I find them on docks , bridge pilons , and the like . Although bricks , cinder blocks , and stuff of the same size aren't too bad . So I would suggest brick sized or bigger . Oysters like water of a certain salinity and current flow . The ones I've been growing in trash cans are finicky to the water flow , sunlight , and etc ... so too much water flow they die or too little water flow they die and probably the same with sunlight , it seems it's an give and take with all that .
Excellent video , Pam!! What oysters? ❤. 😉 Fried in corn flour not cornmeal for me sloshed in lemon juice ketchup and dust some Tony’s and hot sauce of your choice. Consume large quantities. Nooooo raw. Unsafe and loogies on ice.
One day at low tide a couple of blokes were walking along the seashore in England looking to snag dinner, one bloke finds an odd knotty looking shelled creature and broke it open, o-o-o-h it smells real fishy, salty, looks like snot throw it back! The other bloke speaks up and says, "No my chum, I'm thinking with a little hot sauce these will be really good", Brave were the man what ate the first oyster
They used to be classified as poor man’s food and were given away also eels were “the thing” which ok whatever, the shock is what they used to catch the eels……….LOBSTER! Oh my god! Seriously!
Slight trace contamination will always be there. It’s gone enough to be consumed again however. More dangerous than hydrocarbon contamination is heavy metals like mercury in seafood
no size measurements is criminal, at least in texas, doesnt matter if your commercial or not. also why dont you have cooler units on your boats to keep the oysters protected?
Here in Middle texas they dredge until their are no oysters left and then complain about it, Now that there is oyster farming I hope they stop dredging completely.
Nothing like a fresh plump oyster on the half shell. I've eaten oysters from dozens of rivers and bays from Texas to Florida and unfortunately they are all very disappointing. Bland or bitter vs the sweet or salty flavor that Atlantic oysters are famous for. No comparison.
Oh man, my perspective is totally different. I've also had oysters from all up and down the east coast... and I love me some oysters... but when I get them and am just blown away by the flavor, they tend to be out of texas or louisiana. I find those to be about double the size I typically get off of the east coast also. Now, mind my bias, I like a briny oyster.
Just like pizza or burgers, ain’t no such thing as a bad oyster. 😜 But, I agree that Atlantic oysters are far better than Gulf oysters. But even better still, are NW Pacific Oysters. Washington State oysters are plump, juicy, sweet and sort of creamy. I’ve never been out that way though. I’d love to try them freshly harvested one day… 😍
When the oyster farmer started bitching about how the seasons have shrunk and how the government is basing it on "to many different things" I got really upset. That's a very selfish mentality that ignores the fact they've depleted a natural resource, which is why they have to make their own oyster beds now, because they've damaged to natural reefs. It' s not much different from other farm style individuals, it's just annoying to me these people don't go, "Why?" and then work to understand why things are they way they are, and that the industry needs be partially nationalized to help them cover the cost of modernizing their new overheads to make a sustainable market instead of bitching while taking subsidies.
